No woman should die needlessly delivering a life

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the UN body tasked with maternal health amongst other things, there are many factors to contribute to the high death rates.

However, the leading causes however of infant and child mortality are illnesses such as pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles, as well as neonatal disorders. Under nutrition or malnutrition is an underlying factor in over a third of the deaths.

On the other hand adds the UN body, one out of every 12 women in both Somalia and Somaliland dies due to pregnancy related causes (Maternal Mortality Rate is 732 deaths of mothers for 100,000 live births.

SHiFAT has been at the forefront of combating the underlying causes of the high death rates amongst women and children in eastern Somaliland. In Erigavo, capital of the vast Sanaag region in eastern Somaliland, we've implemented a programme helping to safely deliver thousands of babies at the regional hospital.

We have also been work with UNICEF in the Erigavo the Las Anod regional hospitals to save the lives of children under the age of 5 from extreme malnutrition.